Tricycle Blog

Several small bombs were set off in a hotel in northern Burma, while violence continues in southern Thailand, ignored by the world. This time the victim was a 46-year-old Buddhist man who was shot then burned alive. Another man was also shot but managed to escape the militants.
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Burma finishes up a draft of their new constitution and not surprisingly Aung San Suu Kyi won't be allowed to run for election in 2010. This is part of their faint pretense at moving toward democracy. ASEAN, criticized for lack of action throughout the Burmese crisis, expresses concern.
Burma's junta could give two figs what the world think, but China cares, and China controls the purse strings. So when the junta kicks, make China, specifically the effort to mount the Berlin 1936 Bejing 2008 Olympics, feel it.
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Some more on the Shinjo Ito exhibition now in New York (the start of a world tour, apparently.) Several people I have spoken to have expressed surprise that the art is so recent. Here's the New York Times and artdaily.org.
[Photo: The "Great Parnirvana" sculpture by Shinjo Ito, depicting Buddha on his deathbed, is prepared for a show of the artist's works, which opens Thursday in Chelsea. Michael Nagle for The New York Times]
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Invasive species are a serious and growing problem. The Telegraph (UK) describes the situation around the world and in Britain, where they are now worried about the infamous snakehead fish, which has also been found in the U.S. This is the monster-movie nightmare fish that can survive out of water for extended periods of time, walk on its fins, and apparently, if big enough, kill people.
An editorial in the New York Times describes the common practice of ships dumping their ballast water in-harbor rather than out at sea, whichis largely responsible for carrying invasive species across oceans. Global warming may also play a role.
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You may have heard about or seen the sickening video from the Westland/Hallmark meatpacking plant in California. It's been all over the news. James at the Buddhist Blog has a great post on it. 143 million pounds of beef were recalled due to cruelty and slaughtering sick animals at this plant. Do a little bit of reading on the beef industry, just a tiny bit. It will make you sick and it will make you angry.
U.N.
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Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. special envoy to Burma, is now taking the good fight to China. Maybe he'll bring up the Olympics. And the BBC has a special report from Burma as the six-month mark after the protests approaches. More love for Rambo: Burmese refugees in Connecticut saw the film and say "It's true."Interesting but pictureless description of the Ajanta Caves.
Two 32-year-olds killed in more violence in southern Thailand.
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Danny Fisher follows up on Burma with a depressing report from avaaz.org.
An unlikely pairing: Amnesty International and John Rambo.
Quick: what's the capital of Burma? The zoo is being moved there.
The Karen National Union, a rebel group on Burma's border with Thailand, saw their leader Mahn Sha assassinated recently.
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Sylvia Boorstein, author of the new book Happiness is an Inside Job, dropped by the Tricycle office this afternoon to say hello. Your humble correspondent snapped this pic, and talked her into doing a Q & A on tricycle.com! Look for it next month.
She showed us her cool new website, which has pictures of the author / meditation teacher/ psychotherapist as a young lady in Brooklyn. Her husband Seymour, whose picture is on the site, was with her.
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In honor of Valentine's Day, two poems by Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-1706):
92.
When people say this about me,
It is no mistake:
I have more lovers than there are
Bees buzzing above this lake.
1.
From the peaks of the eastern mountains
A bright white moon has risen,
And a young girl’s face
Shines round in my mind.
- From White Crane: Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama, translated by Geoffrey R. Waters
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The White House isn't satisfied with Burma's scheduled transition to democracy. This gesture by the junta is a result of the pro-democracy demonstrations of the fall, and they must be very annoyed that they caused enough of a ruckus by jailing and torturing monks they got the attention of the busy American octopus.
And from one of Burma's troubled border regions:
The leader of one of the largest Karen ethnic rebel groups in Burma was shot dead today at his Thailand border home.
Mahn Sha, secretary general of the Karen National Union, was shot by two men at his house about five kilometres from the border with Burma, said Zin Linn, a member of the dissident National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, to which Mahn Sha also belonged.
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Mia Farrow's campaign against the Beijing Olympics is gaining ground (Spielberg wil not be the "Leni Riefenstahl" of the '08 Olympics) but the Chinese embassy in Washington complains that linking Beijing to Darfur is unfair, and others say Darfur is not Beijing's only sin.
Rambo IV may not be garnering Oscar nods in the West, but Burmese activists thank Stallone for calling attention to the junta's crimes, and the DVD is said to be a hot seller on the ground in Burma.
Why does the Burmese junta lie about its supposed reforms?
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More on the Burmese junta's roadmap to democracy.
Saturday's statement from the military leadership, broadcast on radio and television, announced: "Multi-party democratic elections will be held in 2010, according to the new constitution.
"It is suitable to change the military administration to a democratic, civil administrative system, as good fundamentals have been established.
"The country's basic infrastructure has been built, although there is still more to do in striving for the welfare of the nation."
NLD spokesman Nyan Win expressed surprise that the election had been planned before the results of the constitutional referendum were known.
"According to my understanding, the election date should be set up after the referendum results.
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Well, nothing's simple in this world. Depressing new research seems to indicate biofuels may be worse for the earth than fossil fuels.
An American Baptist Delegation is going to visit Burmese refugee camps in Thailand.
The film Hmyaw-lint-gyin-myar-swar (With Much Hope) about people living with HIV, won Burma's top film honors. Burma's very old movie industry has fallen on hard times.
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